Eye-witnesses have described seeing a man with a handgun in the street moments before two female police officers were gunned down in the line of duty. Home Secretary Theresa May has cut short her holiday to visit Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy this afternoon in the wake of the gun-and-grenade attacks.

Householders in Abbey Gardens were ordered to stay indoors behind the police cordon as detectives examined the scene and bomb squad officers were called into the road.

The man added: "It’s been a tough day for everyone. Obviously what people have seen is absolutely horrific and we’ve been asked to stay inside while they’re doing what they need to do in the area."

Local window cleaner Warren Shepherd was on his rounds when he heard shots ring out nearby.

He said: "I just heard gun shots, bang, bang, bang – around ten of them, then a pause and a big explosion. I went around the back of the houses to see what happened and there was a police car that looked empty.

"There was people, neighbours stood around there and one of my customers said the police officers had been shot.

"I saw one body covered up and going into the back of the ambulance.

"I saw another body on a trolley and it looked like they were doing heart compressions on the body, and I had had enough by then.

"It’s just so sad. Both lost their lives just doing their jobs and my heart goes out to their families."

Another Abbey Gardens resident confirmed the officers were left lying motionless in a pool of blood before additional officers and paramedics quickly arrived at the scene.

He added that neighbours had become suspicious over activity at the house over the last few days. The windows of the house had also recently been whitewashed according to neighbours at the scene.

He said: "We had noticed some suspect characters coming and going and we were aware someone new seemed to be staying there but we didn’t know who it was.

"I counted 13 shots come one after another before we heard a massive explosion which felt like it rocked the whole house, like something in a war zone.

"When we looked outside we saw the two girls lying there and whoever had done it was obviously nowhere to be seen.

"The emergency services had arrived before we knew it and they did their best but we knew straight away that at least one of them had died."

A woman, who gave her name as Naomi, said her ex-boyfriend witnessed the shootings.

She said: "He was a bit shook up when I saw him. He was walking back from the doctor’s and he heard a man he knew shout to him.

"Then someone has come outside the house and shot two officers and then he threw a grenade in the garden. He said the officers hit the floor."

Christopher Quinn, 31, who lives in nearby Ashworth Lane, said: "I didn’t see anything. I just heard, the only way I can describe it, is a boom inside water. I didn’t hear any firing, just this one bang."

Several locals responded spontaneously in the hours after by leaving floral tributes at the cordon.

Karen Hutchinson, 60, passed a bouquet of flowers to a police officer. She said: "I was just so shocked this morning. It is so frightening when this happens on your doorstep.

"Police officers do a good job. My heart goes out to them. Two police officers losing their life, it’s just horrendous."

A man wearing jeans and a white T-shirt left flowers with a note written on the back of a school letter that read: "To the families and work colleagues of the two brave officers that laid down their lives.

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